If you haven’t heard of cybersquatting, I’m sure you’ve at least seen it. It’s probably happened when you decided to guess at the website address for a popular company only to be led instead to a site full of random links, pop up ads or worse. That’s because the site is owned by a cybersquatter, who is capitalizing on the name to reap a profit.
However, there are cybersquatters that are even more vindictive. Some use their similar domain names to create similar sites so they can steal people’s personal information. That’s right. Again, it’s the identity thieves. Another practice that the thieves use is to watch popular websites to see when they are up for renewal. As soon as their registrations expire, the thieves jump on the domains and set up the sites as their own. This is sometimes known as “renewal snatching.â€
In 2008, there were over 2,329 complaints filed in regards to cybersquatting, proving that the practice is a serious problem. It could get worse instead of better as more and more generic top level domain names (.com, .net, .tv, etc.) are becoming available. This means consumers will have to be increasingly savvy about where they are on the net; not just where they think they are. If you’re ever not sure about the legitimacy of a site, do not enter personal information on it. Instead, contact the company that supposedly owns the site using contact information that you know is correct. If you don’t have any legitimate contact information, don’t do business with that organization.
Even when being careful, it can be hard to keep yourself completely safe from online identity thieves. That makes it important to have a backup plan, so to speak. A good way to do so is to purchase an identity theft protection plan. That way, even if identity thieves do somehow acquire a piece of your personal information, you will find out as soon as possible; not after the thief has purchased a yacht or fled from the States to Brazil. This will make it easier to get your accounts corrected right away and hopefully catch the thief in his or her tracks.
No matter how hard authorities work to find and prosecute cybercriminals, the reality is that they are here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. Every time one crime is thwarted, there are two, three or even a dozen more already in the works. Because the Web is so vast and all encompassing, there is really no way to police all of it. Thus, the burden falls on the consumer.
While identity theft protection can certainly help to keep you safe, you still have to teach your family members to follow your example and be careful what information they make available online, whether it’s on a message board or a through a form at a supposedly secure website. Make sure you know who you’re submitting your information to at all times. Who knows when it will actually be an eager identity thief if you are not quite careful enough.